Babysitting: Where are the Boys?

5/10/2013 4:00PM

Should parents hire more boys as babysitters, as a way to stop reinforcing gender roles? Weekend Review contributor, Charlotte Alter, tells WSJ's Jason Bellini that she thinks it's time to teach boys that child care is their job too. Phtoto: Getty Images

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... three girls in America ... babysitting acts as a first step toward adulthood ... offering lessons in responsibility and even parenting ... but where are the boys are just a ... Charlet ulcer is here with us and she just penned ... an essay in which you argue that while it's only good for the boys or girls but that there's gender inequality ... in babysitting now first off I wanna ask you ... why isn't there so many more girls than boys to our babysitters because ... goals or more grunts in babysitters ... I think it's a problem it's probably that but ... but ultimately I think it's that ... more girls are being ants people call around thinking of girls in a neighborhood that can be nice and I don't think that most people think about ... their male friends and relatives and neighbors as suitable baby sister you're putting it on the parents you don't think is that the boys themselves ... or word that they're going to be teased by their friends if their babysitters that is ... that they think that it's a little too feminine of a job for them to be doing the things that the terrorists themselves who are at fault here ... I'm sure that there are some boys who feel that way by most of the place that I've talked to ... who had a decent experience have loved it and have sort of wish that they've ... been able to do it more and ... I said that they actually felt like ... older people and parents and other adults thought it was unclear that they were babysitting ... on which I wish I think is ... you know what is it about the ... essentials we things going through their minds that ... they're not as comparable with the boys is it that they think that they're not to smoke Sher is girls are and can handle the responsibility re it I'll or I I think it could be that I have to think that some parents are watching me feeling a little bit too much wine order SVU ... so come on and that there ... they feel safer eight they feel safer with girls which ... you know and and what I would think that this will tie you bring somebody in your home too much or children ... I'm hopefully that's can it be pursuing no interest already ... so sovereignty would invite some random boy down the street they even that lay behind the ANP to come in and watch your kids let's hope not but ... not presumably be somebody that you already knew and trusted so ... if if the trust is there why should it matter if it's a colorful ... guy it was a babysitter when I was in high school she recently heard from ... other member of ... the kid who I babysat when I was under ... the iDEN Basin so I was you know in ... it until they were ... you ... kids who were old enough to go out and play games outside there they like having a male basically go play for a sports activities with them they didn't ... hire me when they were like little kids its infancy as you think there's a difference there you have ... parents who are more comparable with boys when you're talking about older children ... I I all that's definitely ... the case already as far as I've been able to tell ... on ... I also think that actually that bias especially is one that meets be overturned because ... middlemen ... by the time they reach adulthood has never changed a diaper before whereas many women who've been babysitters often happen that's one of the main points that make is that the recent creates an experience and balance ... where ... when and ... when the babysitters ... had built have cultivated this experience caring for children especially true for very young children ... mentally I just ... who can keep the wheels is a win ... for provocative than your essay ... is that ... it made me feel useful to the babysitter above that reinforces the idea that girls primary value world ... is as a caregiver right focus in the year to a very intellectual about ... his pursuit of babysitting yet Nadu two young women and you think that that's a real concern that it's going to ... serve when the girls and what they wanted in the future ... absolutely to manage a new one on the harbor ... well it ... what we're always looking around to see why Israel forcing him to ruffles is that the advertising industry ... is it the color pink ... is it ... easy bake ovens is a little industry is that our toys that were given our children that Barbie ... play ... what's more persuasive don't wanna catch ... me yelling ... parents low so ... I can so so paranoid about my Coll I can have my daughter walk confessed movie I can't ... have my daughter ... like play with the ECB cut though she can't wear a pink dress ... pattern for baby ... it reinforces gender roles but that assumes she's twelve years old were paying them to go ... practice this performance of womanhood ... parts of less than what you think ... can be done to get past the more comparable with voices babysitters or to think of boys ... first when their car in babysitters ... I hope that they'll babysitters and any act of hiring the babysitters is one of the most feminist those that appear to do ... so if parents really want to ... show their children that child rearing is something that both men and women to ... the strongest ... that this trial this week that they can send messages by high aerial ... always to convert into their homes and play with their children or if it makes them are comparable to have that be more like a mother's helper situation or fathers helper situation ... and that could be a good way to ease into a ... predecessor ever ties and ... it's a fairness Act to hire male babies is ... a apps it absolutely as I think it's one of the most feminist things that you can camp are or will things for being here showing you can read Chas essay in this weekend's ... Weekend Review section of the Wall Street Journal